If St. Cecilia is the patron saint of highclass music, the patron saint of folk music should be St. Francis of Assisi (saint of many things). Francis was the son of a merchant who spent much of his time in France (hence the name), and brought back with him, or fostered in his son, troubadour music. When Francis turned his back on the rich life, and went out wandering the roads, he was often found singing and dancing new troubadour songs to God, and is famous for his songs to his lady love, Lady Poverty. More important, his singing came out of his belief in God's world of abundance, for which his voluntary poverty -- Take no thought for the morrow, God will provide -- was a symbol. He was the creator, or recreator, after Jesus, of the belief in the dignity and special grace of the poor -- and the Christmas scene of Jesus in the cradle was his invention. He was enraptured with the discovery that God was prepared to shower spiritual wealth on those who truly believed, who had faith in the gifts of God, who hurled themselves away from a world of greed and grasping -- greed and grasping being a lack of faith in the constant providing love of God. It is this rapture, this humble ecstacy in the outpouring of the original abundance of the universe, that made him sing so spontaneously, and is at the heart of folk music at its celebratory best.